“Never let one game beat you twice.”
One of the hoariest of all sports cliches.
Because it happens. We’ve all seen a team enter a downward spiral after a tough loss. The Duke women’s basketball team took the court Sunday afternoon three days after a bitter loss in Chapel Hill to their bitterest rivals to host Syracuse.
And for a good part of the opening quarter it looked like that game had the potential to beat Duke twice.
“I told them after the game, obviously we lost on Thursday,” Kara Lawson said, “and trying to bounce back and get a win and get in the win column. So, I thought we started the game poorly, maybe still not ourselves. I don’t know if there were lingering effects – I don’t want to speak for the players – from Thursday or not.”
It took Duke seven possessions to find the basket, by which time the visitors led 7-0.
But Duke regained their focus, used a 24-4 run spanning the second and third quarters to seize control of the game and held on for a 62-50 win.
Yes, another defensive struggle, one that Lawson called “just one of those grind-it-out games.
And she’s fine with that.
“I just wanted to win. You can’t choose your style of win. I think that’s a little entitled. I’m just trying to win. Whatever it takes.”
It was a physical game, in the paint, on the perimeter and in transition. Syracuse coach Felicia Leggette-Jack said “I thought we backed down.”
“I continued to reiterate to our players that we needed to keep battling through the whole game,” Lawson said. “We couldn’t let up and we needed to match physicality with them and we needed to stay disciplined.”
After that early 7-0 deficit Duke trailed 9-2 and 11-4 before ending the first period on the short end of a 15-10 score.
The visitors extended their lead to seven, at 22-15 before Duke’s defense started imposing its will. Syracuse scored only two points over the final 7:22 of the first half. Day-Wilson tied the game at 22-22 with a 3-pointer and Celeste Taylor gave Duke its first lead at 25-24, with another 3-pointer.
Duke never trailed again.
It was 29-24 at the half.
“It was all of us coming together,” Day-Wilson said of the dominant second quarter. “Coach Lawson just kept on telling us play with energy. Play with energy because she can't really play with energy for us. So, we just had to bring it for each other, stay together, and just really execute.”
Doesn’t mean the second half was easy. It never seems to be for this defense-first squad.
“We would get separation,'“ Lawson noted “and then we couldn’t get more separation. They kept fighting, to give credit to them. We just couldn’t get a ‘comfortable’ amount of separation.”
Five different Blue Devils scored in the first four minutes of the third period and Duke opened up its biggest lead, at 39-26. Another one of those offensive droughts hit, more than four minutes without a point and Syracuse closed to 39-33 and then 41-37.
But Reigan Richardson hit a foul-line jumper and Duke got a stop and the third period ended with Duke up 43-37, Duke plus one for the period.
Duke started the fourth period slowly. Syracuse had the ball twice, down 43-41.
But no closer. Their star guard Dyashia Fair kept shooting and kept missing. She came into the contest averaging 19.4 points per game. But she missed all seven of her shots in the fourth period and ended the game 4 for 18 from the field, scoring only 12 points. She also turned it over five times.
Her backcourt running mate Teisha Hyman came into the game averaging almost 13 points per game and she shot 2 for 11, with four turnovers.
“They are hard to guard because they make tough shots,” Lawson said of Fair and Hyman. “Some of those shots they make, you’re like how do we play better defense on that shot? And they make you nervous through the game because you know at any point, they can get going and make shots, but I did think we paid great attention to detail on our scout and on our game plan of what we’re trying to do. That showed through the course of the game. And then I thought individually, we had different moments where players took the challenge one-on-one and just forced a really tough contested shot. With two [Fair] specifically, we felt the size or the length of some of our defenders maybe could impact her on her shot.”
“It was our main focus,” Day-Wilson said of defending the duo.
A key sequence came with just over two minutes left. Syracuse had the ball down 52-46. Reigan Richardson picked Fair’s pocket and found Taylor for a layup. 54-46. Seconds later Taylor stole the ball from Fair. Taylor hit a jumper later in the possession and it was 56-46.
“I think Reigan is growing right before our eyes,” Lawson said of the Georgia transfer.
Day-Wilson blunted any comeback by making all four of her late foul shots, after missing six of 13 against the Tar Heels.
“On Thursday, I missed some free throws,” she said, “some big free throws, but I just went back in the gym and just do what I had to do and kept my composure.”
Day-Wilson led Duke with 16 points, giving her 40 in Duke’s last two games.
“She had seen substantial growth on the defensive end,” Lawson said of Day-Wilson, “running a team, and then we obviously know she can shot make, which is what she did in the last two games, and I thought she started the game off competitive and ready to go. So, she’s growing a lot and we needed that.”
Taylor had a typical Taylor game, 15 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals. Balogun added 10 points.
Lawson said this was what she hoped for after the loss Thursday night.
“We wanted to snap right back into the win column and see if we can start another winning streak.”
Duke is 7-1 in the ACC, 17-2 overall, with the dangerous Virginia Tech Hokies coming to town Thursday night. But they’ll be facing a Duke team trying to build on a one-game winning streak and a winning streak is always better than a losing streak.